Another three die in initiation schools
The toll in the Eastern Cape's winter circumcision
season has risen to 11 with news of the deaths of
another three boys.
"The latest victim died a few hours ago at an
initiation school at Qweqwe village outside Mthatha,"
provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo
said on Thursday morning.
"We suspect that it's because of a complication from a
botched circumcision."
He also said rescuers had found a would-be initiate
dead when they discovered him and 21 other boys hidden
in Pondoland's mountainous Ntabankulu region.
The 17-year-old, who had not yet been circumcised, had
apparently died of starvation, he said.
The boys had been kept in the mountains for more than
three weeks and were denied food. The survivors were
taken to hospital suffering from starvation.
"They look like skeletons," he said.
Kupelo said the health department would recommend a
postmortem on the dead boy, and that a case of murder
be opened.
| 'They look like skeletons' |
He said it was believed another 149 initiates and
would-be initiates are still hidden in the
region.
The health department received a tip-off and spent the
whole of Wednesday night searching for the boys, said
Kupelo.
"The area (where they are hidden) is very hard to
reach and we might have to send helicopters."
He said the bogus traditional healer responsible was
expected to be arrested on Thursday.
"We don't understand why a human being can do
something like this. This is against the custom, it is
contradicting custom," said Kupelo.
Parents would be encouraged to lay charges against
those responsible.
"We cannot allow our children to be killed by
opportunistic individuals in the name of custom... they
are making the custom a laughing stock."
It was reported earlier in the week that one initiate
had been taken to hospital in East London in a critical
condition with gangrene of his genitals.
Police in the province are investigating charges of
assault, running illegal initiation schools and
illegally conducting circumcisions.
Five illegal surgeons are facing criminal charges, and
police are searching in the Transkei for at least
another four. - Sapa
|